Wrestling Enters Top 25 for Fifth Straight Year; 6 Mustangs Nationally Ranked
12/11/2024 3:30:00 PM | Wrestling
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — After shining at one of the season’s biggest tournaments, the Cal Poly wrestling program is receiving plenty of attention nationally.
For the fifth straight year, the Mustangs have achieved a top 25 national ranking as a team after checking in at No. 22 in the latest InterMat Tournament rankings released this week. Cal Poly also received the same ranking in WIN Magazine’s most recent Tournament Power Index.
The national praise comes after a stellar showing by the Mustangs at the prestigious Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational this past Friday and Saturday. While battling 14 of the top 25 teams in the country and seven of the top 10, Cal Poly was able to secure a strong 13th-place finish out of 30 teams at the tournament, their best result at Cliff Keen since taking 10th in 2021.
Cal Poly, who has been receiving votes in the NWCA Coaches Poll all season long, was also the only team not affiliated with one of the three major power conferences in college wrestling (Big 12, B1G and ACC) to have a wrestler in one of the 10 first-place matches at this year’s Cliff Keen Invitational, with redshirt sophomore Romney rolling through his weight class to claim the 133-pound championship.
Individually, six Cal Poly wrestlers are now nationally ranked by InterMat, most notably Romney who soared from No. 12 to No. 4 at 133 pounds in the latest edition of the rankings. The ascent comes as no surprise after a remarkable run by Romney in Vegas. The Simi Valley, Calif. native tore through his weight class, defeating four nationally ranked opponents en route to capturing Cal Poly’s first title at 133 pounds at the Cliff Keen Invitational in 15 years. In addition, Romney became the first Cal Poly wrestler to win a weight class at the tournament since Evan Wick in 2021.
Romney’s performance in Vegas earned him Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week honors for the fourth time in his career and the second time this season. The 2024 NCAA qualifier went 5-0 at the tourney to improve to 9-1 on the year. At the Cliff Keen, Romney grabbed a 19-2 technical fall over Oregon State’s Chase Deblaere, pinned No. 28 Derrick Cardinal from South Dakota State at 2:09, took down No. 11 Nic Bouzakis from Ohio State by a 6-5 decision, defeated No. 19 Jacob Van Dee from Nebraska by a 5-2 decision and upended No. 6 and 2024 All-American Evan Frost from Iowa State by a 7-3 decision.
Romney has six victories over ranked opponents this season and 14 in his career.
Another Mustang is currently ranked in the top 10 nationally, with redshirt junior Chance Lamer checking in at No. 7 at 149 pounds. Chance did not wrestle at this year’s Cliff Keen Invitational, but is a perfect 5-0 on the season and won his weight class at the Tiger Style Invite earlier this year.
Graduate student and 2024 174-pound Pac-12 champion Adam Kemp (0-2 this season) is ranked No. 28 at 174 pounds. Redshirt junior Trevor Tinker is ranked 30th at 285 pounds, and redshirt junior Luka Wick (165 pounds) and redshirt freshman Daschle Lamer (184 pounds) round out the list of ranked Mustangs, both checking in at No. 33 in their respective weight classes.
Tinker and Daschle both advanced to the Round of 12 at the Cliff Keen Invitational, finishing one victory short of placing at the tourney. Tinker posted a 3-2 record at the tournament, with his only defeats coming to ranked opponents. The heavyweight and two-time NCAA qualifier is now 10-5 this season.
For Daschle, this is his first career time being nationally ranked. Daschle went 2-2 in Vegas, earning a dominant 10-0 major decision over 2024 All-American and No. 12 ranked TJ Stewart from Virginia Tech in a consolation match during the tournament. Daschle is 7-6 this season and won the 184-pound title at the Roadrunner Open on Nov. 24.
Cal Poly returns home next week to host a pair of duals at the Mott Athletics Center on Thursday, Dec. 19. The Mustangs battle Cal Baptist first at 5:30 p.m., and then cap the doubleheader at 7 p.m. against Northwestern.
